February 14, 2008 - The Writers Are Back: Wow! Wow! Wow!

At first, it appeared that Comedy Central's A Daily Show with Jon Stewart hadn't gotten the memo that the writers were back. Otherwise, why start the show by calling it A Daily Show, Stewart's personal show of support for his missing staffers, rather than the non-strike title The Daily Show?

It turned out, though, to be only a tease. Stewart led his show by welcoming the writers back, leading with the fact that the strike was over. He then changed the A back to a The, and The show was on.

On other shows, in their own ways, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien - the other late-night programs doing without writers - all did the same thing, but to varying degrees of success.

Stewart got an A. Colbert and O'Brien were close behind... and the others, on this first night back, weren't.

After welcoming the writers back, Stewart led the show, to his increasingly obvious distaste, with a report on the Westminster Kennel Show, describing the beagle's surprise win as "a decisive victory in the war on terrier."

Stewart shuddered, sneered and scowled.

"Really?" he asked, obviously addressing his writers. "You've been gone 100 days, this is the (BLEEP) you're gonna pull?" It was the funniest bit, on any talk show all night, dealing with the writers' return.

Colbert, on The Colbert Report, welcomed his writers back by having them run on camera individually, accept a handshake and a pencil, and keep on moving. Some of them were real writers. Others were ringers, such as Kevin Bacon. And when Colbert enthused about finally having words to read in the prompter again, we were shown the words as he said them.

"Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow."

Leno, too, noted that the writers were back, but the monologue didn't seem stronger as a result. Leno's biggest laugh came when he mistakenly said "Osama" when he meant "Obama," and blamed "a disgruntled writer" for the mistake. A bit later, Leno also got excited noting one obvious change, now that the picket lines are down.

"Tomorrow night, what's this?" he asked, announcing an upcoming guest. "An actual star? Russell Crowe is coming here tomorrow!"

Jimmy Kimmel started Jimmy Kimmel Live, over on ABC, by announcing, "After 100 excruciating days, the writers strike is over." Then, by presenting jokes about Carrot Top and Oliver North, he offered some excruciatingly tired punch lines by writers who should have been more rested.

Conan O'Brien started Late Night by saying of his writers, "It's great to have them back. In fact, they wrote that. It's the first thing they wrote."

And now, finally, back to business as normal... and to a Happy Valentine's Day.